Join Now for Our 90-Day Weight & Health Challenge

Disclaimer/Success Story: This challenge was originally introduced in early 2015. Since that point, I have lost over 80 pounds, have become a totally different person (health and fitness now play a HUGE role in who I am) and I have gained energy and don’t feel exhausted all the time; in fact the picture below is me after just losing 60 pounds. I know this sounds like an infomercial but its all true! I share this to help give you some hope that maybe this challenge (as you tailor it to you and your situation) might be a way to see real-life change as you work towards your diet and fitness goals in the weeks and months to come. Finally, if you want to follow my current status, I encourage you to check out Live. Health. Run. with passion… to see that yes, this challenge has lasting results.

I can’t believe this!

You’re going to find this post a little off of our normal beaten path. You might even wonder how this has anything to do with frugal living. Well we have two easy answers for that.

One of our goals on our site is to help you get your finances under control and encourage whole-life change while doing it. In other words, if you take any of our challenges – especially our 52-week Take Back Your Finances challenge – our hope is that you will walk away and see real change in your family. Our hope is that your lifestyle will have changed for the better, see that you are meeting your financial goals and giving you the freedom for whole-life change. In other words, we really believe that becoming healthier in every area of life will help every area of life – including your finances.

This challenge could ultimately save you a ton of money over your lifetime. Say we’re stretching this a bit – that’s fine. But at the end of the day, we know that healthy living can (we know the healthiest athletes can still be vulnerable to serious, chronic disease) promote a lifetime of saved money. Less money spent on prescriptions, doctor appointments, short and long term care all mean more money in your pocket, more money for your family and maybe even a little bit more time with your family. In fact, a recent health survey I just took (today in fact) listed finances as one of the reasons why someone would want to focus on fitness. It just makes sense.

At the end of the day – for myself – this is about healthy living, being tired of being tired, with more energy for my wife and kids now and hopefully in the days, months, and years to come.

So what is it we’re doing?

So all this to get to the challenge and what it even is. I’m doing a 90-day challenge (for me and anyone that want to join) to implement baby steps and whole-life change to try to get a bit healthier, lose some weight and try to get back to my former days (you can stop laughing now :)) when I used to run and enjoy exercise. Obviously Cassie can’t join us very easily due to her pregnancy and expecting in April (she is exercising and eating healthy – just having different goals than I do).

But joining this challenge isn’t about following my plan nor encouraging you to use my tools to do so (although I will share both just so you know what/how I’m doing). This is about encouraging you to Be Intentional (you’ve heard of our 30-Day Be Intentional challenge before – we love intentional living) so you can make real, whole-life change now that can be continued the rest of your life.

I’ve listed my goals so you can get a taste of what to expect:

Lose ~25 pounds over the 90 days – This is just my goal – using My Fitness Pal (see next tip) is encouraging me to lose 2 lb per week max. So by combining both diet and exercise I hope to do just that!

My diet changes will be tracked using My Fitness Pal (an amazing tool) – I use this to track my calories, fat, carbohydrates, and sugar grams. To me, the whole point is to understand that when I eat one item it means I need to make sacrifice elsewhere. (Secret: This has been an amazing eye opener over the last 30-days)

I will slowly start running again – starting with walking and then running – I’m using a heart-monitor to track my running (and staying within 65-75% of my max heart rate), but another great tool is Couch to 5K (links to both Apple and Android options). I’m trying to take it a bit slower to reduce my risk of injury.

Drink 7+ cups of water per day – Every time I’ve been a bit more – shall we say healthier – I’ve included a significant amount of water intake.

Take vitamins and supplements to help round out my health – This will include general supplements like multi-vitamin, vitamin D, vitamin B, etc.

Many of the changes I’m trying to implement are whole-life changes as well; learning how to become active (in a way I can maintain the rest of my life) and learn tricks for my diet (if I splurge one meal learning to cut down later) that can all be maintained for the rest of my life.

Now again – all these things are what I’m doing – whatever you might do could be totally different. The point to this challenge is to be intentional, do something, and make sure you keep it up and not give up – no matter what the scale says tomorrow or the day after that.

Finally, I am also using goal charts and trackers to keep me in order, remind me of my goals, help me to plan (the old adage – failing to plan means planning to fail). When it comes to planning out the foods I eat, I have found that really the only success has been to have my whole day’s foods planned out the at least one day before. I also like to see the visuals of what I have eaten, what I have accomplished and even water in-take goals as I know that all of these steps in planning and tracking really do and have kept me on track. I am able to use printable planners to help guide me through this process, meal planning and more. Be watching for how you can get your copy of these printables too.

How can YOU participate?

Sign up for our challenge newsletter – over the next week you should receive a few emails to help you prepare for the challenge and then normally receive a couple of emails per week to provide encouragement, give you updates about myself (with hope to hear how YOU are doing) and even more resources to use!

Join our new Facebook group – Fitness and Health Challenge with The Thrifty Couple – this way you’ll be sure to not miss tips as we get ready for the challenge and can start encouraging others as we all do this together!

Finally follow us on Instagram! We have found that its so much fun to share our daily updates and fun things that come along our way on Instagram. If you’re already following others – and even posting yourself – then its a great way to join in the fun and even add your own statuses using #90dayhealthttc.

We’re not sure if you are like us, but its so much easier to set goals and work together with a group of people. We hope that you will plan to join us so we can encourage on another on to our goal! Expect to see real change that will impact your body, your family and your whole life!